USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service sent this bulletin at 05/04/2018 09:11 AM EDT

Effective May 1, 2018, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) will require USDA import permits for all live animal shipments via a land border port between Canada and Alaska.

Please note this is not a regulation change. We are enforcing our current regulations, which allow the entry of certain types of live animals from Canada without a USDA import permit if the entry is at a designated land border port as listed in 9CFR Part 93. However, there are no designated land border ports on the Canadian/United States border to Alaska. Therefore, we require all APHIS Veterinary Services (VS) regulated live animal imports from Canada to Alaska to have a USDA import permit issued prior to entry into Alaska to facilitate inspections. Live animals requiring an inspection that present at a non-designated U.S. Land Border Port without a USDA import permit will not be eligible for entry. This includes all bovine, swine, farmed cervids, ovine, caprine, domestic camelids, poultry and hatching eggs, ratites and hatching eggs, pet birds, germplasm, and permanent entry horses.

Canadian horses may enter the US temporarily without a USDA import permit, but must exit the United States by the 30th calendar day—post inspection—as listed on the health certificate (HA 1964).